Pepsi Asked For My Thoughts
First off, a big old disclosure that The Coca-Cola Company has been a client of mine. I should also state that I grew up in a house that drank only Coke products and for the most part besides Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi when there is nothing else that holds true in my house today.
That being said, I thought it was an interesting approach that Pepsi took to leverage the social media space and get their new logo out to the public. By now I’m sure most people have read about The Pepsi 25, but in a nutshell they sent three packages, each twenty minutes apart, to 25 online influencers. The boxes showcased the evolution of the main Pepsi logo through the years and the final box contained a six pack of the new Pepsi cans and a DVD about the brand.
I was chosen as one of the influencers and unfortunately the surprise angle didn’t play out with me personally because the courier got lost or something and by the time my first box arrived I had already seen Chris Brogan and Greg Verdino posting pictures of the product so I knew what was up.
So, what did I think of the campaign?
On the good side I liked that they kept it simple. They didn’t go crazy with flashy shiny things or crazy wild expensive items. An unmarked box full of empty soda cans. Doesn’t get much more simple then that. The idea of having them delivered by courier and timed out was an interesting twist that I really liked. Unless that courier is sitting in your driveway and then it isn’t much fun.
It was smart to send them out to people that have a tendency to take and post photos online, tweet about everything that happens in your life and that more then likely will share immediately and get the word out. I know the first thing I did was take a picture and post it to my Flickr account and then I tweeted about it. They also set up a Friendfeed room for people to share their thoughts. But, after the initial rush, will they build a community there? Only time will tell.
On the bad side, I think Pepsi blew a perfect opportunity to really connect with the people they reached out to. There was a note in the first box and a letter in the final box detailing the program. Why in the world wasn’t it personalized for the people receiving them? I hate form letters in e-mail so of course I’m going to hate them in snail mail as well. This lack of a personal touch really is inexcusable in my mind. If you are going to take the time to connect with people at least take the extra few minutes to make it personal.
You know what would have been cool as well? Something to take it up a notch if they wanted to? If the final box came chilled.
After all these soda cans arrived in my office, I was craving a nice cold soda and all I had was warm Pepsi. You know what I did? I walked down the hall to the soda machine in my office which happens to be a Coke machine. Sure, it would have cost a little more, but think about it for a minute. That would have been cool! (…and did I mention that the Coke machine was out of Coke? Blargh!)
Overall I like that Pepsi did this. It is an interesting approach, but I’m curious what they do from here. Now that they know I’m a Mountain Dew addict will I get something when that new branding comes out? Next time will they look for those people online who are rabid Pepsi fans and go after them to start the conversations? How do they take their Friendfeed room and really leverage it. Will they use other social media tools as well? I know they’ve got some good people over there and I’m sure there is a white board somewhere with all kinds of thoughts and squiggles on it.
I know if The Advance Guard was Pepsi’s agency I’d have some definite thoughts on how they could roll out their new branding initiative that is under way. People are not drinking as much soda as they use to. A fancy new logo and a new font on the can (which I don’t like by the way compared to the old bolder one which I dug) is not going to sell more soda. There is a lot of potential ways they could go with this.
Influencer outreach campaigns are an interesting beast. You honestly never know what people are going to say, if they are going to say anything at all or how they will react. With all the feedback that Pepsi is getting I’m sure they realize that most of it is constructive feedback that they can take and make their future programs even better.
If Pepsi is reading, give me a call. I’d love to help you guys out next go around.
November 12th, 2008 at 9:49 am |
Wait a second. Not one comment on the new logo? Well if you’re not going to do it then I am. For full disclosure I have been incredibly disappointed in Pepsi since they abandoned their 80’s logo (along with Pepsi Free which was an awesome drink). As a product of the ever so popular late 70’s/early 80’s National Divorceathon my two households were split. My Dad was always a Pepsi drinker. I think Mom kept Coke in her house just to spite my father. Consider how lucky I was that this was the extent of their bitterness towards each other. I am being totally honest here when I say I rarely drink soda, especially cola, but when I do I go for coke. A lot of that has to do with me not taking Pepsi seriously anymore do to their constantly changing and increasingly worse logo. It’s like they’re an unsuccessful baseball franchise who constantly changes uniform/logo designs in order to drum up interest and apparel sales, when your top sellers are the Red Sox and Yankees who rarely change a thing. Time and time again it never works.
With that said I think the logo looks like a candidate for an Air France re-brand. No joke. That thing should be on the tail of an airplane and not my can of soda. I respect the font choice paying homage to the old Diet Pepsi font, but for big, bold and corn syrupy Pepsi it’s week. It might work in Paris, but it doesn’t scream American pastime, but rather please put me in a small fridge behind the bar next to the Red Bull.
After so many changes has this philosophy turned into an unstoppable force or is Pepsi thinking that one of these days something will stick? In an era where vintage is king you would think they would go back to the juggernaut that was responsible for lighting Michael Jackson on fire. Then again that incident coincided with the demise of the once great brand and logo so basically we can consider all of this the “Curse of Jack-O”.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am |
I didn’t comment on the logo because honestly I don’t have a strong feeling about it one way or the other.
I’ve read about how it is suppose to represent a “smile” and that all the logos are going to be updated with a sort of facial expression along the lines of “grins”, “smirks” etc.
I think it is an interesting approach and I’m curious to see the whole product line before really giving an opinion on it.
Didn’t really move me one way or the other.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:21 pm |
Wasn’t it Coca Cola who successfully used “Have a Coke and a Smile”? That was one of the best taglines of all-time. Can I assume that nobody working on this account noticed this? Are they counting on their target audience being too young to have lived through that campaign or are they just a bunch of Lord of the Rings nerds trying to be “tricksy” like Gollum? This is so perplexing to me.
Hopefully they respect you enough as an “influenceist” to participate in this discussion. These are important things that within the era of social media Pepsi has to jump into and share with us, because as of right now the new logo is representing Air France and ripping off Coke…in my eyes at least.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm |
Well I think we need to give Pepsi a “high five” for at least putting there toes in the social media water. Agreed it could have been better, I would have done it different as well, but hey they are trying and aware of the space. Thats a lot more then most companies are doing. Oh and look at this..we all are talking about Pepsi..
November 12th, 2008 at 2:44 pm |
If the Advance Guard were Pepsi’s agency, they would not have epitomized lack of content by shipping a lot of empty cans.
And new logo? It looks like they borrowed it from an airline.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:24 pm |
Do we honestly think that in an age of conversation and personal recommendation, logo design still plays such a critical part in sales? Just wondering out loud. My reaction was not “it’s better, worse, different” – my reaction was “i have too many other important things to think about than this – how does this change add any value to my life, and if it doesn’t, why should i care?”
November 12th, 2008 at 3:28 pm |
[...] Pepsi review is in and this time by C.C. Chapman. He posts his thoughts on what Pepsi did to get the word out, [...]
November 12th, 2008 at 4:05 pm |
Steve, I would say 95% of what people like us do is completely insignificant to people’s lives. Sure, some of the pro-bono stuff we do has direct and powerful impact, but nobody really benefits from me helping Playboy sell a DVD box set of “Playboy After Dark”. Rarely are brands culture shifters, but Pepsi, at least for a time being was. During my youth our culture was defined by Coke/Pepsi, McDonalds/Burger King, Nike/Reebok. You HAD to pick sides as if you were joining a gang and as a result those brands had major impacts on our lives. I think with the fact that we have so many brands now (Coke and Pepsi have a ridiculous amount under their umbrella now) the power of these brands is diluted plus we’re all older with more interests and responsibility that we rarely notice this stuff, but since Pepsi has been an important brand in my life and is associated with a lot of personal memories I will take note of the insane amount of brand/logo changes they’ve made over the last 20 years and since we have these awesome tools will share my opinion. If anything I got to remind everyone that Michael Jackson was blown up shooting a Pepsi ad and YouTube provides this nugget to drive that home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp4YG_dIPxY
November 12th, 2008 at 9:05 pm |
I think the shameful thing is that Pepsi did not originate one of the comments here!!
November 13th, 2008 at 7:36 am |
[...] C.C. Chapman’s interesting take on the recent Pepsi new logo social media campaign. [...]
November 14th, 2008 at 1:26 pm |
I pretty much agree with the general sentiment here. I think the key here is, is this REALLY the START of an effort by Pepsi to use social media to connect with online customers, or was this an attempt to simply get buzz from bloggers? I tend to fear it might have been the latter, if they wanted this to be long-term, I would have chosen to give the cans to Pepsi evangelists, who would have gone crazy to be ‘one of the first 25′ to see these cans. Then they would have gone to every blog/board/social site they frequent, and told EVERYONE about this.
And I think Paul’s comment is spot-on, the fact that Pepsi isn’t here is very telling. I get interaction via the ‘Pepsi Friendfeed room’, but out on the blogs is where the REAL conversation is happening.
I applaud Pepsi taking steps, I just hope they have the determination to stick with it. Remember that Dell’s first steps into the SM space were pretty shaky.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:32 pm |
NY Times: Pepsi Shifts to a New Ad Agency
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/business/media/18adco.html?8au&emc=au
I’m not sure at what level within a company or their ad agency you work your magic, but it seems that you would be a good fit to help Pepsi in their embracing of “Change”. A new media campaign would fit nicely with their new agency.
The new agency is TBWA/Chiat/Day, and their clients include Visa, Merck and Michelin to name a few.
You’re already on their radar, so what’s your next move?
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm |
[...] Pepsi asked for my thoughts by CC Chapman [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 3:37 pm |
shelf-life for a can of pepsi: a couple months.
shelf-life for the new pepsi logo: expired.
prediction: they’ll scrap the “smilies” and replace them with a more traditional “globe” within a year.